at Berri Square
(Berri metro)
Mtl, Qc, Kanada, Turtle Island...

Callout for March 15th, 2008 : 12th International Day Against Police Brutality

Since 1997, the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP) has organized a protest in Montreal on March 15th to highlight the International Day Against Police Brutality (IDAPB). This day of action (decreed after the violent beating of two youths, ages 11 and 12, in Switzerland on March 15th, 1996) has been highlighted in numerous cities and countries around the world. On March 15th, 2007, protests and other events took place in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Toronto, Belleville (Ontario), Guelph, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, and Oaxaca, Mexico.
ENOUGH POLICE KILLINGS AND IMPUNITY!
The media has devoted a lot of coverage this year to the death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport after he was given two electric charges from a Taser Gun. Less coverage was devoted to the cases of Claudio Castagnetta and Quilem Registre, two men who were also killed by Tasers. Numerous people die each year as a result of police blunders, leaving victims’ families in silence and resentment. The problem lies in the regular abuse of power by police officers who, unlike the rest of the population, are free to kill without fear of consequence, due to the obvious complicity of the government and judicial system. As if this wasn’t enough, Jaques Dupuis, Minister of Justice and Public Security, has consistently refused to render justice in cases of death resulting from police brutality, and is planning to change the law on policing to further facilitate impunity of murderous officers.
No to Tasers!
Now more than ever, we ask for the abolition of this deadly weapon which has already taken too many lives. An end to the collaboration of government and corrupt corporations…
STOP SOCIAL CLEANSING!
Police routinely harass homeless, youth, and sex workers to get them out of public places. Peace officers not only apply the laws and regulations, they also systematically attack certain segments of the population. This is particularly obvious in downtown Montreal, where the police act as armed enforcers for local commerce, assuring its vision of a shopping district reserved for the rich and the tourists. The number of fines given to homeless people by agents of the Montreal Transit Corporation (STM) has significantly increased in the last several years. This form of repression is very costly to society, and does nothing but put at risk those who are most deprived. In the last few years, several new regulations have been adopted to this end:
-The closing of the last public places where homeless could spend the night, in September of 2006.
-The banning of dogs from Berri and Viger squares, known to be frequented by street people and their companions, in June of 2007.
-Benoît Labonté, mayor of Ville-Marie subdivision, seeks to outlaw walking more than two dogs in Ville-Marie by March, 2008.
STOP RACIAL PROFILING AND COLONIALISM!
The racist police officer is not a myth. In the summer of 2007, several cases of abuse by Montreal police against blacks and Phillipinos were reported, particularly in Côte-des-Neiges. Illegal arrests, police harassment and brutality are experienced daily by youth in predominantly immigrant neighbourhoods. The Human Rights Commission recently ruled on several case of racial profiling, ordering the city of Montreal to compensate the affected families, but the mayor has refused to do so. It would seem that mistreatment and racism are also political matters!
Canada is a country founded on colonialism, land theft and the genocide of indigenous peoples, and things haven't changed. Indigenous people fighting to live as they wish are victims of repression, as shown by the case of anti-colonial activist Shawn Brant, a Mohawk imprisoned in Ontario.
No to security certificates!
In the name of the so-called “War on Terrorism”, the government uses “security certificates” to deny a bunch of basic rights to suspected terrorists, all from Arab and Muslim communities, further reinforcing prejudices. The Canadian state also offers a disgusting fate to its refugees, holding them indefinitely and without cause and deporting thousands to countries where they face imprisonment and torture.
ENOUGH POLITICAL REPRESSION!
This past August, at the anti-PSP protests in Montebello, the public was shocked at the images of “agents provocateurs” in the crowd. This is not the first time, however, that police have employed these tactics. The different policing agencies have always had the purpose of protecting those with power, and to nip in the bud any opposition. In this supposedly democratic state, the tactics used by officers of the law are more than questionable: mass arrests, agents provocateurs, tear gas, rubber bullets, and illegal searches. We have only to remember International Women's Day, March 8, 2007, when police used force against women and others protesting. We witnessed the same treatment during the student strike in the fall of 2007 at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal, when 107 people were arrested completely arbitrarily. And the list goes on. In the name of security, those in power eliminate all political opposition with violence and bloodshed.
We've had enough! In solidarity with all those who fight for liberty and justice, we demand the release of all political prisoners here and everywhere.
This year, COBP once again invites concerned groups and individuals to participate in the 12th International Day Against Police Brutality in Montreal, on the 15th of March, 2008, at 3pm at Berri Square. We also encourage you to organize an event in your city and to endorse this callout if you support our demands.
Our fight against police brutality has no borders! Down with all police states!

The Collective Opposed to Police Brutality (COBP) - c...@hotmail.com - 514-395-9691 - cobp-mtl.ath.cx